Voters across the state send an unmistakable message

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On Election Day, voters sent a powerful message: The days of wine and roses and tax-and-spend are over, and they want leaders with proven records as fiscal conservatives.

Republican candidates had a clean sweep in the New York City suburbs. Even in a true-blue state, the New York GOP won county executive elections in Nassau, Westchester, Rockland and Orange counties, despite being outnumbered significantly by Democrats.

This was a tremendous feat! Voters from Long Island to Buffalo made it clear that they’re sick of paying among the highest property taxes in the nation and having to leave the state because it is no longer an affordable place to raise a family.

In Nassau County, there are 37,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. In Westchester, Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1, and Orange County is no longer Nixon Country, with nearly 60 percent of households listed as registered Democrats.

The victories didn’t end there. Republicans flipped control of the Erie County Legislature and turned the legislature in Chautauqua into a supermajority. Of this triumphant Election Day, State Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos said, “New Yorkers want their public servants at all levels to focus on reducing taxes, partnering with the private sector to create new jobs, and bringing competence, functionality and leadership back to government.”

That sentiment could not have been made any clearer than right here in Nassau County. Voters recognized the true leadership and dedication of Ed Mangano and re-elected him by an 18-point margin. Mangano turned his narrow 386-vote victory of 2009 into a nearly 50,000-vote triumph in 2013.

He described this victory as a mandate to continue his policies. He deserved to win, and he won on the same pillars Skelos mentioned: reducing taxes, job creation and improved leadership. Mangano made the tough decisions needed to turn this county around, and voters rewarded him.

Most important, Mangano had a clear message: He had held the line on property taxes for four straight years, and promised not to raise property taxes in his second term.

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